Word Origin & History

"large cask," Old English tunne, a general North Sea Germanic word (cf. Old Frisian tunne, Middle Dutch tonne, Old High German tunna, German tonne), also found in Medieval Latin tunna (9c.) and Old French tonne, perhaps from a Celtic source (cf. Middle Irish, Gaelic tunna, Old Irish toun "hide, skin"). Tun-dish (late 14c.) was a funnel made to fit into the bung of a tun.

Example Sentences for tun

To every gallon put four pounds of good Lisbon sugar, tun it immediately, lay the bung lightly on, and leave it to ferment itself.

At Ferriby the pump conveyed from the wharf to the tun, here it was from the tun to the wharf.

And that trick he did thrice, standing on the tun as it came and went.

Do you pronounce 'ten' as if it were written 'tun', or 'men' as if written 'mun'?

He had a paunch like a tun, triumphal, like an Abbate Asinico.

This accounts for the second tun—but we have still other four to account for.

So much for the disposal of one tun; but what about the five others?

The celebrated great Tun of Heidelberg is in one of the cellars of the castle.

A second tun was constructed in 1664, and this held six hundred hogsheads.